My idea for this project was to create a short animation that would explore the inner space of the

human body and show the process in which Leukaemia can develop. My target audience was children at the Key Stage 3 level of education (from age 10 14) who are being introduced to microbiology. This meant that the animation had to offer the facts about Leukaemia but using a language, both orally and visually, that they would understand so that they would be about to learn from the video.

As part of my research into micro-biology to make sure my animation was as well informed as possible I watched many informational videos. I can across a French animation (with English dubbing) the was first aired as a series in the late 80s called Once upon a time... Life. Each episode featured a different process of the human body. In The Bone Marrow episode the human girl character develops Leukaemia. It was a great influence though its audience would be a little younger then my own target. The bright, distinguishable characters meant it was entertaining as well as easy to follow. A voiceover helped carry the story by explaining what was happening while the action took place on screen. This would be the style I would adopt for Leukaemia: A journey into the body.

Influence Map of Cartoons

Young Red Blood Cell from Once Upon a Time... Life: The Bone Marrow.

I looked into the sort of television programs that were aimed at this age group to find the trending style they had. Cartoons like Scooby Doo and Sponge-Bob Square-Pants fit into this category along with other more stylised cartoons like Samurai Jack.

A Diagram of an Animal Cell and a Plant Cell found on the BBC Bitesize KS3 website.

Childrens Science Books

I also looked at the existing styles used in educating at a KS3 level. I explored the BBCs Bitesize website that is designed to aid KS3 students in revision by using different education techniques like text, diagrams and interactive games. I also looked through science books written for children like Usbornes Look inside your body. The formula here was well labelled diagrams on white space. The focus, therefore, was drawn to what the book was teaching.

The story opens in white space with a diagrammatic boy. The narration describes the basics of the cells then carries the audience through into the body.
The rest of the story now takes place from with the body. The development of the blood cells is explained.

Then a cancerous cell is born which the divides through the mitosis process.

As the cancer spreads a virus enters into the body and because there are no white blood cells to fight it the body becomes sick. Then chemotherapy treatment is given by injecting the antineoplastic drug.

The antineoplastic drug then fight the cancer cells. New blood cells are created and the body is restored. The world then returns to the white space area.

This is an earlier concept for my characters. Very colourful but I felt the design was too young for my audience.

Using the theory that less is more I made me characters all sweet and simple. They would all represent, visually, the role they took in the body but they didnt need to be overly complex. Each character would have a face so they would have a personality but nothing that would confuse the audience. As the animation is an educational one they will already be learning a complex process so everything else needed to be simple and clear.
Initial Design Big eyes, as its still a young white blood cell, with a soft glow.

Final Model

The Red Blood Cells carry the oxygen around the body. In my design theyve been given crab-like claws to grasp the oxygen and place it on their backs. It makes them interesting and distinguishable.

Final Model

Initial Design Big eyes and little claw arms for picking up oxygen

The internal plasters which is why they look like plasters but more organic. They come in different sizes but there are so many I set them to travel in groups.

Initial Design Long and very thin with the feeling that the can stretch out a lot.

Final Model

The Caner Cell. The same as the white blood cell but corroded and... Orange. The bone marrow set is purple so the contrast of orange makes it stand out as out of place.
Initial Design Spikey and bright orange with an evil stare.

Final Model

The egg like bubble that all the blood cells are made in. Not really a character as it would make too much happening at once. Originally they where purple but they blended too much into the environment.
Initial Design A Bubble like egg with a very thin outer layer.

Final Model

Strictly speaking its a chemical that is toxic to rapidly reproducing cells but it is personified in my animation as these cute little guys.

Initial Design Small and pill shaped to suggest their medicinal nature with a soft, blue glow.

Final Model

The virus that enters is colourful and spiky to suggest its dangerous nature. No face as I didnt want it to over take the cancer cell in villainy and because virus are technically dead.

Initial Design Shocking pink spikes with a sickly green body to make sure theres no mistaking it for a body cell.

Final Model

Texture Map

Bump Map

Character

The following images show the textures and bump map for each character. All fairly simple to keep the blocky cartoon style throughout the film.

Texture Map

Bump Map

Character

Texture Map

Bump Map

Character

Texture Map

Bump Map

Character

Texture Map

Bump Map

Character

Texture Map

Bump Map

Character

Texture Map

Bump Map

Character

I looked at photos taken through microscope of the bone marrow which seemed to be an endless tunnel system. Most of the images I viewed the bone marrow was purple which is possibly the dye use to make it more visible however I felt it made for a bright colour that is somewhat unnatural in a real world environment so would further the illusion of being in a different, micro world. I wanted it to look like there were many little tunnels, almost cave like with the stalactites. The colours are very blocky to keep the cartoon style. I was inspired mostly by the environments of Scooby Doo

The finished environment creates the illusion of being enclosed in a underwater cave. The colours give an idea of foreground/background too that allows all the layers to be visible. The simple texture gives the feeling of it being organic while not drawing attention away from the action.

I experimented with other textures before landing on my final one.

The Texture and bump map for the front wall. The shade of purple gets lighter and lighter the further back it sits.

I saw the blood vessel as one long tunnel with a wet and slippery looking texture to it. The walls would feel very closed in to keep the idea that the action is taking place in a enclosed space. The red colour would make it easily distinguishable as a blood vessel.

The texture used on the walls was design to be plain but also suggest that the wall are somewhat spongy and soft. The lighting is, by design, non-dynamic so to keep the cartoon style to its appearance.

There was no trouble texturing this scene as I had experimented with the bone marrow scene and found the best style but their were many lighting made for the blood vessel. The trouble was keeping the look of the length if the tunnel but, not making it too dark or bright and also not losing the red blood cells into the colours.

The Texture and bump map for both of the vessels. There were two vessels, one with the hole for the virus to enter through and another were all other action took place.

Really very basic boy standing in white space. Originally this was going to be live footage edited afterwards to look more cartoony, however, the simple animation used in the making of my animatic proved to actually work quite well for the piece. I rotoscoped a recording of my nephew standing and sitting and created a more detailed, quick animation for the opening sequence.

I used Adobe Photoshop to create the frames of the animation. It needed to be clear and simple, like the science books to start of the complex narrative.

A few more of the frames from the opening sequence. Saving them as PNG file meant I was able to take them into Adobe After Effect and Premiere Pro to animate the sequence.